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At our July 20th meeting, we
unanimously elected the follow-
ing new officers:
President—Kaitlyn Rodriguez
Vice President—Gloria Sutton
Secretary—Cheryl Grayden
Treasurer—Jose Rivera
Congratulations! Let’s all com-
mit to supporting these offic-
ers !
From our New President:
I am excited to take on the role
of president this coming year,
and I look forward to providing
all that I can for our members.
The Texas Master Naturalist
program is what you make
it. Our chapter in particular
has a lot of potential to grow
into something unique.
This year, I hope to add to
its history by fostering our
support to continue making
a difference in the commu-
nity and in the environ-
ment.
If there is one thing I know
for certain, it is that people
pursue what they are pas-
sionate about. I could not
be prouder to be a part of
such a passionate group of
individuals. My promise to
you is to share my passion for
Congratulations to our New Officers!
From our Outgoing President
This is my
final letter
to you as
president.
The last
year was a
crazy, excit-
ing one in which I learned many
new things and made many new
friends. I want to thank you all
for the support you offered me
and your fellow group members.
I couldn’t have asked for a better
group of classmates! I urge you
to continue to support the chap-
ter officers and committee
chairs.
I think this chapter has the po-
tential to be one of the best ones
in the state. That can only hap-
pen if you continue to support
the officers you elect and the
committee chairs they appoint.
Remember, we are all working
for one goal—to advance educa-
tion about the natural wonders
of our beautiful state.
The Advanced Training Com-
mittee is planning lots of fun
classes for you, both in the class-
room and in the field. We have
recently become partners with
Bat Conservation International
and we are looking forward to
adding some classes about bats
to the schedule as well as pursu-
ing some volunteer opportuni-
ties with them. Also, the annual
meeting at the end of October
will provide at least 8 hours of
training classes, so try to attend!
Finally, Mom and I have extend-
ed our lease thru May 9th so she,
at least, will be here throughout
the training cycle. I graduate in
December and will begin the job
search process with the start of
school in August. Where I end
up is in God’s hands.
As Past President, I will contin-
ue to give Kaitlyn all the support
and help that I can. See you in
the field!! — Maire
B a l c o n e s C a n y o n l a n d s a t C o n c o r d i a U n i v e r s i t y T X C h a p t e r S u m m e r , 2 0 1 5
Save the Date!
9/10/15—New TMN Class begins! 10/23-10/25/15—Texas Master Naturalist 16th Annual Meeting at Horse-shoe Bay Resort
Congratulations to our
New Officers!
1
From our Outgoing
President
1
New Committee Heads 2
Native Plant Highlight 2
There’s an App for That 2
Out and About 3
TMN Annual Meeting 3
What’s in My Mailbox? 4
Officers & Committee
Heads
4
Inside this issue:
the program by continuing to
show my support to you, the com-
munity and our environment.
— Kaitlyn
Cheryl Grayden, Gloria Sutton,
Kaitlyn Rodriguez, and Jose Rivera
tents of several bird guides onto
your phone, including photos,
recordings of calls, range maps,
and other information so you
can access it without internet
access. Available for iPhone and
Android for a fee.
Audubon Mobile Field Guide
Apps for North America include
Birds, Mammals, Wildflowers,
Trees, Insects and Spiders, Fish,
Butterflies, and more. Available
for iPhone, Android, iPad, and
others.
Committees can be an important
working force at the heart of any
organization. They help distrib-
ute the workload and give mem-
bers opportunities to participate
in getting important work done.
In addition to electing new exec-
utive officers, our chapter named
new committee heads during our
Committee Night this August.
Here are our standing and ad
hoc committee heads for the new
year. Volunteer to join them!
Standing Committees:
Training—Theresa Rooney
Membership—Theresa
Rooney
Volunteer Service—John
Laisy
Advanced Training—Jessie
Zehr
Program—Gloria Sutton
Newsletter—Karen
McGraw
Outreach—Beth Samuelson
Host—Bill Cryer
Student Welfare—Dr.
Whitehead
Youth Programs-Michael
The Historian committee
head is currently an open
position.
Ad Hoc Committees:
Nominating—Maire Cox
categories and 5 searchable
categories for scat, with photos
of animals featured.
Project Noah is an app to ex-
plore and document wildlife and
a platform to harness the power
of citizen scientists. Record and
manage your spottings, partici-
pate in missions, and earn
patches for your efforts. Availa-
ble on the App Store and can be
downloaded for Android.
iBird is the leading app for iden-
tifying birds. It loads the con-
The Merlin Bird ID App from
the Cornell Lab gives you free,
instant bird ID for birds in your
area at the time you are seeking
to identify them. The Bird ID
Wizard guides you through 5
questions before offering identi-
fication help. Download the
free app from the App Store or
Google play.
MyNature Animal Tracks is a
comprehensive field guide to
animal track identification using
smartphone technology. It is a
database with 7 searchable track
There’s an App for That: Nature Apps
mainstay in Hill Country gar-
dens.
While today we prize it as a
plant in our landscapes, native
peoples made good use of most
parts of this plant. They used
the fibers from sotol leaves to
make mats, many different
types of baskets, and twine. The
straight, woody flower stalk was
used as a lightweight wood, and
we have evidence that historic
people ate the seeds.
Look for it on hikes, but beware
the ‘teeth’ on the spines!
Texas sotol is a spiny evergreen
perennial that is often mistaken
for a cactus. It is commonly
seen growing on rocky, well-
drained areas and tends to
clump in dense stands.
The sotol is a summer bloomer.
A 9 to 15-foot flower stalk bear-
ing a 2-3 foot spike of yellowish
flowers grows from evenly-
spaced spines and a wide
cupped base. Even though its
native habitat includes flat de-
sert areas, prairies, meadows,
and brush, it has become a
Native Plant Highlight: Texas Sotol
New Committee Heads
Canyonlands Chronicle Volume 1, Issue 3
“Sotol grows in flat
dessert areas, prairies,
meadows, and brush.”
Page 2
Merlin BirdID
Sotol (Dasylirion texanum),
Ladybird Wildflower Center
opportunities to meet your Ad-
vanced Training requirements.
Some of the training topics in-
clude:
Project WILD Facilitators
Recruitment and Retention
of Volunteer Members
TMN VMS Training for the
End User
A Natural History of Milk-
weeds
Bird Tales for the Elderly
Chapter Outreach
Good Water Chapter’s
Youth Education Commit-
tee
You Can Help with Pollina-
tor Recovery
Nightengale Archeological
Center
..And many more!
In March/April 2015, I went
through training and began to
volunteer as a Texas Master
Naturalist for the Colorado Riv-
er Watch Network. LCRA
administers this volunteer pro-
gram, whose mission is:
“The Colorado River Watch
Network (CRWN) supports
community-based environmen-
tal stewardship by providing
volunteers with the infor-
mation, resources, and training
necessary to monitor and pro-
tect the waterways of the lower
Colorado River watershed.”
CRWN is the first and largest
regional volunteer network of
water quality monitors in Tex-
as. Trained volunteers submit
water quality data that is re-
viewed and analyzed by CRWN
staff, creating an early warning
system that alerts LCRA to po-
tential water quality
threats. Although CRWN only
requires a two-year commit-
ment to monitoring, many vol-
unteers have been participating
for 5 to 10 years.
Water sampling and testing
takes about 90 minutes (not
counting travel time), once a
month. Sampling is performed
at sites throughout the lower
Colorado River watershed, from
above Lake Buchanan down to
Matagorda Bay. Tests are per-
formed and data submitted to
LCRA (via an electronic form)
for dissolved oxygen, pH, con-
ductivity, and nitrate nitro-
gen. Observations and data are
recorded and submitted for air
temperature, water tempera-
ture, weather conditions, and
water conditions. I will soon begin recording observations for evi-
dence of zebra mussels and for depth transparency.
I work for LCRA in power generation engineering, so my CRWN water
sampling work is not part of my job. My sample station is on Lake
LBJ near one of LCRA’s power plants where I commonly work, so I
can take samples and perform the tests on my lunch break. The lake
water quality information I collect is important to the power plant’s
environmental manager, so I provide a copy of the data separately to
her when I upload it to the CRWN website.
The training to become a
CRWN water quality
monitor is very thorough
and well-organized.
I received the training, a
reference manual, a loan-
er sample kit, and a sup-
ply of test chemicals from
Jacob Apodaca, the LCRA
CRWN coordinator. Ja-
cob, who is very apprecia-
tive of TMN volunteer
monitors, spent several
hours training me (including follow-up training) and answering my
questions.
If you’re interested in water resources and the supply of good quality
water to the people (and environment) of Central Texas, becoming a
CRWN water quality monitor is a great way to get involved! If you’re
willing to learn and commit (and you didn’t fail high school chemis-
try!), then you’re qualified.
See me or click here for more information. Several members of our
chapter have gone through the training and are actively monitoring
for LCRA’s CRWN in the Colorado River watershed. I’ve got the
“inside track” with Jacob to get you signed up if you’re interested!
—John Laisy
The Texas Master Naturalist
16th Annual Meeting is October
23-25th at the Horseshoe
Bay Resort just outside of
Marble Falls, TX. For infor-
mation about the event, go to
the official Meeting Website.
Please consider attending this
important event, where you can
mingle with and learn from
other Texas Master Naturalist
volunteers from around the
state. There will also be ample
educational seminars and
Texas Master Naturalist 16th Annual Meeting
Out and About — Colorado River Watch Network
Canyonlands Chronicle Volume 1, Issue 3
Page 3
Lake LBJ, near the Resort
This summer, my humble mail-
box became the nesting place of
two Carolina wrens. What began
as a perplexing clump of small
branches and leaves quickly
became home to four eggs. I
peppered my family's email
inboxes with reports and up-
dates. My sister responded with
a link to the website,
"NestWatch.org" and told me
the Cornell Lab of Ornithology
might be a more appreciative
recipient of my regular reports.
NestWatch is a nationwide
monitoring program designed to
track status and trends in the
reproductive biology of birds.
The website allows individuals
all over North America to ob-
serve and report nesting data
that is able to be used for re-
search and is shared openly
through the website. By partici-
pating in a brief but important
instructional component, a user
can obtain certified NestWatch
status and begin contributing
data.
I added a new nest named in
honor of Carol, our star mailbox
bird, and began faithfully add-
ing data on a near-daily basis.
The data fields included the
status of the nest, the presence
of adult birds, the number of
eggs, hatchlings, fledglings, and
even the number of cowbird
eggs or fledglings (if they were
present).
Our four eggs, three hatchlings,
and three fledglings all made it
into the nest attempt data and
on July 28th our last fledgling
flew the coop! Aside from con-
tributing my own data, I could
also explore all the other nests
in Austin and beyond, learn
more about nesting habits of
various species, view other par-
ticipant photos, and engage in a
virtual community of like-
minded passionate stewards
and observers of wildlife.
The commitment was minimal
and the collective impact has
huge potential! — Jessie Zehr
Chapter Officers & Committee Heads
What’s in my Mailbox? (Reports from a Citizen Scientist)
Canyonlands Chronicle Volume 1, Issue 3
“NestWatch is a
nationwide monitoring
program designed to
track status and trends in
the reproductive biology
of birds.”
Page 4
Committee heads:
Training & Membership: Theresa Rooney
Volunteer Service: John Laisy
Advanced Training: Jessie Zehr
Program: Gloria Sutton
Newsletter: Karen McGraw
Outreach: Beth Samuelson
Historian: OPEN
Host: Bill Cryer
Student Welfare: Sam Whitehead
Nominating: Maire Cox
Officers:
Current officers for the Balcones
Canyonlands at Concordia University
TX Chapter are:
Kaitlyn Rodriguez, President
Gloria Sutton, VP
Cheryl Grayden, Secretary
Jose Rivera, Treasurer
Thank you to Maire, Kaitlyn, Theresa, and
Jose for their service as officers last year!
Our mascot: Salam ander
Newsletter masthead: Jessie Zehr
A big “thank you” to our
officers and committee
heads!
Kevin Shea, photogra-pher, from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology web-site
Chapter members are encouraged to contribute articles and photos to the newsletter. Let us showcase
your recent activity, favorite native plant, tree, bird or book! Most stories are 125-150 words in length.
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